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When I started writing on Kontrary, I wanted to update the site’s branding right away, but I decided to commit to writing first. If I could commit to a weekly schedule, a redesign would be my reward. And oh, how satisfying it has been.

The old design was reflective of my mood at the time – a bit serious, but also clean and modern. For the new site, I wanted to keep the clean and modern, but dial up the happy factor. And in fact, this is the most color I’ve had on my site. Ever. And I love it, because it’s so much more reflective of who I am right now.

Work, that of pursuing a specific passion or purpose, has become irrelevant. As technology increasingly gains momentum, we’ve moved from the age of work/life blur to the age oftech/life blur.

For instance, if you’re a writer, it’s not the content that matters (the work itself), but how the content is consumed and packaged. “We are on the brink of accessing digital content through what they call the ‘splinternet,’” argues Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath. “Devices, hardware, software, applications and content, rather than being offered interoperably in a wide-open World Wide Web are increasingly going to be stacked up in proprietary ecosystems in which denizens can talk only to each other.”

So iPad apps like Flipboard, Zite and others like it are becoming the norm and offer “a much more natural way to consume content on a tablet, and the aggregation they provide is like having a customized newspaper available at any time,” argues Matthew Ingram on GigaOm.

There are exceptions, okay. But very few bloggers can actually write. Bloggers pander to a crowd trying to satisfy the hive mind. Blogging is entertainment. Many bloggers are good at marketing, building community, relationships, and especially aggrandizing self-promotion, but not writing.

Crowdsourcing is a bloggers’ anthem. I remember my first blog. I deleted it. The posts didn’t get commented on and weren’t passed around. That wasn’t the point. But for bloggers, that is their mission; to create 500-word packages, bold-faced and headlined, read and digested in two minutes or less, bursting with lackadaisical opinion and junk epithets.

This is a short video I created at the request of Bret Simmons who teaches a college class called Entrepreneurial Psychology. Since I couldn’t speak to his students in person, this was the next best thing.

While it’s longer than most of my videos, I share a story that I have never talked about publicly before, and discuss personal branding, integrity and how blogging can affect your life.

This video will not show up on the home page. The post was shared exclusively to my subscribers and Facebook fans as bonus content. Thank you for being such a great community!

Bloggers, Facebookers, Tweeters and more seem to be constantly besieged by warnings from young and old alike that we will regret our words, photos and thoughts. One blogger reveals, “I look back at some of my own posts and shake my head.” Online tools make it possible to change in front of the eyes of the entire world… And some believe this is going to be pretty embarrassing in the years ahead.

What do you think? Do you share enough to worry? How do you think your online activities will affect the future?

A lot of bloggers are more proficient in words than in person, so it’s not surprising that many haven’t taken the leap to video blogging. But they should. Video posts provide a great, unique way to connect with your readership. I’m still learning, but here are six tips that helped me get started:

1. Watch a lot of videos.
Write down what you find appealing and what you don’t like. I tend to like short videos with lots of personality. Pay attention to the video content, length, and the format.

I’m exhausted. I worked eleven hours today. And it wasn’t the work, but the emotional excitement and fatigue that comes with ideas and the wherewithal to execute on them.

I’m exhausted from putting myself out there and taking risks and worrying too much that I’m not doing the right things. I’m exhausted from working the entire weekend. I’m exhausted from missing my friends.

The last thing I want to do is write a blog post. But I made a promise to a fellow blogger. I made a promise to Dan Schawbel, author of Personal Branding Blog, and one of my first friends in the blogosphere.

I read a lot of posts on social media hoping someone will say something new, but that never happens. We need to stop masturbating to what the tool is and start using it to see how it works.

Some of my favorite bloggers have said recently that they want to stop their current blog and start writing a blog about social media. How unoriginal. You aren’t an expert because you write about social media. You’re an expert because you use it.

2. McKinney-Oates Cerealby Marie McKinney-Oates, @mckinneyos
Marie is the new Dooce. Wildly entertaining, transparent and hilarious, she writes about such topics as sex, her cat, the Snuggie, religion, her husband and whatever else crosses her mind. She has a special aptitude for dialogue.